


Falling Apart At The Seams

by AceOfTime, AtlanteanLeviathan



Series: Quadrangle [1]
Category: Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Badass Dipper Pines, Badass Mabel Pines, Bill cries, Bill is not happy, Copious amounts of glitter, Demon Deals, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magical Dipper Pines, Magical Mabel Pines, Mental Illness, Nightmares, Pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sleep Deprivation, emotional angst, how much gay can fit in one fic?, let Will snap, mabel and dipper are con men who learned from the best, mentions of the Unknown, please let these children sleep in peace, spiteful demons, stalker beast, the beast is an asshole
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 12:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5743225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOfTime/pseuds/AceOfTime, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtlanteanLeviathan/pseuds/AtlanteanLeviathan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After suffering through years of nightmares from their near death experience, brothers Greg and Wirt are offered help from an unlikely source.</p><p>For a price.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Apart At The Seams

Wirt had been exhausted all day. His way of dealing with the nightmares was to just drink coffee until he didn’t have to sleep anymore. There was nothing he could do to help Greg however. More and more often he’d have to comfort his younger brother after his nightmares woke him up. It was horrible that he had to go through this. Greg was a junior in highschool and he really should be focusing on class. Wirt sighed and laid his head on his desk. This was really taking a heavy toll on him.

 

He rubbed at the back of his head and got up. More caffeine. He was starting to get sleepy. He walked downstairs and saw Greg watching Disney movies on the couch. Wirt walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?” He asked. Greg nodded and didn’t respond. Wirt frowned. Ever since that stupid near-death experience nightmares had plagued the both of them. Near the end of Wirt’s senior year in college they’d gotten _really_  bad. Both of them had barely slept in the last week. Wirt walked into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

 

When he finished he went and sat down next to Greg. He wrapped his arm around Greg’s shoulder and watched the movie with him. It was Aladdin. At least Greg could still enjoy his favorite movies. Wirt had lost that ability a while ago. He didn’t know how much longer they could go on like this. He didn’t have any idea what to do. Wirt’s eyelids drooped and he wished he could just drift off. The terror the nightmares had instilled in him kept him fighting for consciousness. He rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on the screen.

 

“You should sleep Wirt.” Greg mumbled with a concerned look at his brother. “It's been _three days_. That can't be healthy.”

 

Wirt let out a deep sigh, shaking his head. “I know but, but…” Wirt trembled. He wanted nothing more than to sleep. His whole body ached from his lack of rest. He was starting to see things too. The last thing he wanted was full blown hallucinations. The paranoia would get a lot worse too. But the nightmares…

 

Greg gave him a look that conveyed that this was not a suggestion. Wirt sighed. Greg was probably right. It’s not like he could go forever without sleep anyway. “Okay, fine. I’ll sleep.” He leaned against his younger brother’s shoulder and closed his eyes. As he drifted off to sleep, he silently prayed to whoever was out there. Someone, someone has got to help them. But he didn’t know who could.

 

* * *

 

To put it lightly, Bill was pissed beyond any human measure. A demon of a lower caliber than him, a monster that hid itself in the shadows, was encroaching on _his_  territory. It was fine for a boogeyman to be featured in a nightmare, based on someone's fears or memories. What _wasn't_  fine, was one deliberately invading the Mindscape to put nightmares into someone's head. That was _his_  job, and he'll be damned thrice to hell before he let someone else take away all his fun. This simply would not do. Demons that show any signs of weakness or leniency get torn apart and fed to the hell hounds for brunch. Bill was going to have to take matters into his own hands and _f_ __i_ x _ this.

 

He had to take time out of his busy schedule to deal with this annoyance, traveling to some boring little rural town to find out who was moving in on his territory, and _why_ . It didn't take long to see the inky cloud of fear that surrounded two young men in particular. The dark shadow that followed their every step, and _flooded their minds with nightmares_ , was easy to identify. The Beast. Bill didn't care why he wasn't in the Unknown like he was supposed to be. All he cared about was why he had the fucking nerve to touch the Mindscape.

 

Bill turned his observations to the two boys. The younger of the two was a bubbly social butterfly, much like Shooting Star. Bill didn't bother with their type much, since they naturally had sugar sweet dreams that he had no interest in. The kid was filled with darkest of nightmares at the moment, the unnatural nature of them causing ripples in the boy’s mindscape. Fortunately for the kid, he was resilient enough against this onslaught of horrors to his mind. This whole ordeal wasn’t scarring him for life. At least not yet. Normally Bill would have reveled in the scarring of a child, but he wasn't a fan of it when it wasn't of his own doing. The older of the two was almost a zombie, dead on his feet as he worked his meaningless job, avoiding sleep as often as he could with the assistance of caffeine. His Mindscape was cracked in places from all the horrifying nightmares that plagued his waking thoughts until the sleep deprivation finally got to him.

 

Bill kept an eye on the two, trying to figure out why the Beast would invade another demon's territory just to terrorize these two boys. What did these two do to earn the Beast's wrath? Whatever it was didn't matter in the long run, because he was going to humiliate and destroy the Beast either way, yet he still wanted to know. Maybe he would pay a visit to the elder's dreamscape to find out. He was about to fall asleep anyway.

 

* * *

 

Bill blocked the Beast from entering the elder brother's mind as he fell asleep for the first time in three days, wanting to extract any information he could out of the boy. Let it never be said that he wasn't a fair demon, wanting to get as many sides of the story as he could. He was going to eviscerate the Beast, but he wanted to hear why these two in particular were being targeted first. He easily slipped into the young man's mindscape, and brought him into a state of lucid dreaming so he could talk to him. "Hey kid, who are you?"

 

Wirt jumped and blinked at his surroundings. Was he… back in the Unknown? Wirt swallowed. It looked like it at least. Except everything was in grayscale. Well everything except for himself and the man standing in front of him. He was shorter than Wirt, with curly blonde hair. His nose was straight and upturned and his cheeks still had residual baby fat. Adding the presence of pointed ears and he kind of looked like an elf. He was wearing a golden sweater vest on top of a white button up and was wearing black slacks. Pretty fancily dressed Wirt would say. His fashion taste was pretty old fashioned for someone who couldn’t be older than 24. All in all he looked pretty ridiculous. But the strangest thing were his unnaturally golden eyes that had an intense look Wirt couldn’t place. “Uhm… who are _you_? And where am I?”

  


Bill crossed his arms, leveling an unimpressed look at the young man. "I asked you a question first, I'll answer when you do."

 

“Uhm, ok. I’m… Wirt.”

 

"Hmmmm. Unusual, but I've heard stranger," he uncrossed his arms, and placed them on his hips. This was strange for him since he was used to his triangular form, but wasn't going to let that show. "I am Bill Cipher, ruler of the Mindscape, where we are now." He flung his hands up in a dramatic fashion, gesturing to the dimension around the two with an unsettling grin on his face.

 

Wirt tried not to snort at the ridiculousness of what he said. “Errr… Ok. So it’s not the Unknown…?” Wirt trailed off and looked around. “Why am I here? Am I not asleep?” Wirt glanced back at Bill but looked down quickly at his hands, not wanting to meet his gaze. Something about this guy instilled a terror inside of him and he didn’t know why. At least he was a relieved that this wasn’t the Unknown.

 

Bill's lips curled at the mention of the Unknown. "Oh, you're asleep alright! Lucid dreaming to be specific. Which is fortunate for you, since you couldn't have gone on much longer on so little sleep. That brings us to the reason for this discussion: Why is the Beast invading my realm to give you and your brother nightmares?" His face was void of any emotion as he stared at the young adult, waiting for him to answer.

 

“You know about that?” Wirt looked off down the path. “I don’t know. Maybe because we escaped the Unknown when we were younger. He’s been tormenting us since then.”

 

"Normally I wouldn't care if another demon was tormenting some kids for showing them up, hell I'd even join in on the fun sometime, and lend a hand," he snapped his fingers in front of Wirt's face to bring his focus back to him. "But the Beast has crossed the line by entering the Mindscape and giving you two nightmares."

 

Wirt swallowed. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “So what? Are you going to get rid of him?” This was the best news in weeks. Even if it was coming from this weird guy in his dreams. Wirt was most definitely not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If this man was going to help him he would probably get on his hands and knees if he had to. He would do _anything_  to get this to stop. And to save his brother.

 

"If you're asking if the nightmares from him will stop, then the answer is yes." Bill’s eyes narrowed at the thought of the Beast, "the Mindscape is mine to control, ...no one else's." His voice was cold. In an instant he snapped back to a cheerful mask, "However, he's still going to stalk you and haunt your every step, at least until I gather the proper materials to completely erase him from this and every other plane of existence! That could take a while though."

 

Wirt frowned. “So what do I do? Will my brother be safe?” Wirt rubbed his forehead. This was great if this was real. It seemed a little _too_  good to be true though. What if this was some hopeful dream? Or what if it was just the Beast giving him false hope? “What are you anyway?” Wirt asked cautiously.

 

A grin split Bill's face in two, almost unnaturally wide. "Awwe kid, that's sweet that I make you hopeful, but I'm not doing this altruistically. I'm doing this to piss the Beast off for daring to come into the Mindscape." He tilted his head to the side, inquisitively, "And how do you define safe, physically or emotionally?" Looking away from Wirt, he observed the kid's Mindscape, looking at the trees surrounding them. He wondered what memories lied beneath the bark of those trees, his fingers itching to claw at them. "I already told you that I'm the Ruler of this place," he said, although it wasn’t the whole truth. "I might know someone who could advise you on what to do," he said, trying to avoid telling the young man what he was, seeing as that might lessen his trust in him.

 

“Who? I’ll do anything,” Wirt said desperately. Of course what Bill was saying was only half-comforting, but it was better than nothing. It was weird having such an intimidating aura coming from such an innocent-enough looking guy. Even if his appearance was a little ridiculous. Not entirely unattractive however. Wirt shook his head. “I just need to protect my brother, we only have each other…”

 

A smile graced Bill's lips when he felt the flicker of interest being smothered by Wirt, "Aww that's sweet! You actually remind me of the guy and his sibling. You humans and your silly familial attachments are hilarious, how you cling to each other in comfort, even when the one you care about the most could so easily be the one to stab you in the back." He sighed in fondness as he reminisced.  Recalling one of the memories he had seen in his time possessing good old Sixer, of how he’d let his brother get tossed out on the streets alone. He’d also loved seeing how the hurt had stabbed through Fez, when he got to root around through his memories while looking for that safe a while back. Both sides of the knife can be fun. "He's a paranormal expert of sorts. He might be able to help you protect your brother while I prepare to kill that the Beast. I could give you his contact information, for a price." The thought of a deal made his mouth water in anticipation.

 

Wirt swallowed harshly. “A price?” That did _not_  sound good.

 

Bill turned back to Wirt, his eyes wide with delight. "A favor, that's all that I want from you in exchange. A favor to be fulfilled at any time that I wish, to the extent that I want."

 

Wirt eyed Bill. “That’s all?” Didn’t sound like much. “Okay, fine. Deal. Now tell me how I can find this ‘specialist’.”

 

Bill gave the man a smile as sweet as poison, offering his hand. "Deal. Let's shake on it. Then I'll tell you." He stared expectantly at Wirt, the smile still on his face.

 

“Okay,” Wirt said nervously. He took Bill’s hand in his, noting that it was unusually warm.

 

Bill’s smile transformed into a grin, showcasing the points of his teeth. His hand gripped Wirt's tightly, almost to the point of pain. Blue flames blossomed from his palm, encasing their locked hands as a cackle clawed it's way up his throat. The strange echoing quality it had filled the space around them, nearly deafening in volume.

 

Wirt let go as a jerk reaction and stared at Bill in horror. He couldn’t shake the idea that he had just made a horrible mistake. Whoever, _whatever_ , this guy was, he was bad news. Wirt grit his teeth. As long as he could sleep without worrying for his sanity. It would be worth it. He hoped.

 

"Oh don't worry, as long as you keep your end of the deal, I won't do anything to you. I'm nice like that." His smile dropped, eyes gaining an intense quality, "However, if you don't, I'll give you nightmares that tear apart your already crumbling psyche. You'll be reduced to your fears, and probably drive away the last person you have left, if you don't end up lashing out at him in fear by then." Breaking a person is one of the perks of his job, and driving apart such close-knit siblings would be the cherry on top of the cake.

 

He placed his newly freed hand over where his heart should would have been, if he had one. "Let it never be said that I'm not a man of my word, " he said, snapping his left hand. As Wirt's left forearm burst into flames, he used his power over the Mindscape to made it feel like his hand was actually on fire. A scare tactic, sure, but he had to keep the man's fear of him well and alive to assure that he held up his side of the bargain. It's all in good fun really, he gets a good laugh in, and Wirt wakes up with Dipper's contact information written in permanent marker on his arm. Win-win.

 

Wirt yelped and shook his arm violently, trying to put it out. “SHIT!” He yelled. The skin wasn’t burning but it sure as hell felt like it was. The flames died out and he examined his skin. It was completely fine, but there was now something written on it. Before he could read it however, he felt an uncomfortable tug at the back of his head and the Mindscape swirled away from him. Wirt awoke with a start on the couch. Greg was asleep next to him. All was peaceful. And no nightmares.

 

* * *

 

After waking the man up and making sure the his brother wasn't being terrorized by the beast, Bill took the time to completely bar the Beast from entering their Minds in any way whatsoever. He tore out the remaining edelwood roots left in the boys’ mindscapes, turning them to ash afterwards. This wasn't done out of the kindness of his nonexistent heart, he did it completely out of spite for the other demon. No one else gets to mess with people's minds but him, that's _his_ thing. When that was completed, he set out to find what he needed to kill the Beast, it would take some time, but it looked like the oncoming months would be entertaining.

 

* * *

 

 

Wirt blinked the sleep out of his eyes and immediately glanced at his arm. Written on it were the words ‘Dipper Pines, Gravity Falls, Oregon’ and a phone number. Wirt scrambled to his feet. No time to waste. Now that the Beast was out of their heads he’d probably try to find another way to go after them soon enough. Wirt rushed into his kitchen and picked up the phone. His hand shook slightly as he dialed the number. It rang a few times before a cheerful voice answered the phone.

 

“Hello! You’ve reached the Mystery Shack! Mabel Pines speaking, how can I help you?”

 

Wirt swallowed. “I’m looking for Dipper Pines, I need to talk to him urgently.” There was a pause on the other line.

 

“Oh, okay. Dipper’s my brother, I’ll go get him for you!” Wirt then heard the sound of the phone being put down. He tapped his foot impatiently. After a few moments a sleepy voice answered the phone.

 

“Hello? It’s Dipper.”

 

“Hi. I need your help.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> Prepare your feelings, because this is going to be a journey.


End file.
